DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0133
MINOAN PERIOD
85
fallen; the others advance to meet the infuriated beast. The
bodies of the fleeing animals, elongated as if to accentuate their
rapid movement, fit marvelously into the tapering shape. The
men have the typical narrow waist line. Both men and animals
are expressed with the greatest vigor. The process by which this
was done, known as damascening,7 is as follows: On the metal
base, usually bronze, the design is outlined with a sharp instru-
ment and the parts to be inlaid are cut out, leaving a depression
with a slight undercutting on the edges. Into this depression
pieces of different colored metal, cut to fit, are sunk and pressed
firmly into the undercut edges. The surface is then smoothed
and polished. Details are sometimes engraved.
Fig. 54. Dagger Blade. Bronze, inlaid with gold, electrum, and some black sub-
stance. 1600-1500 b.c. National Museum, Athens.
SUMMARY
These gifted Cretans, proud, aristocratic, pleasure-loving,
and of agile mind, in the two-thousand-year span of their exist-
ence produced an art that reveals their exuberance of body and
spirit. The splendor of their palaces, their furnishings and deco-
rations, the vigorous movement in the bull-fighting and hunt-
ing scenes, the charming naturalism of their pottery and jewelry,
and the magnificence of their metal work are witnesses that
the descriptions in Homer of the shield of Achilles and the
house of Alcinous were based, not on the poet’s imagination,
but on the actual appearance of the civilization by which he was
surrounded.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baikie, James, Sea Kings of Crete. London, Black, 1910.
Bossert, H. T., Alt Kreta. Berlin, Wasmuth, 192.1.
Breasted, J. H., Ancient Times. Boston, Ginn, 1916.
.. .7 Fr°m Damascus, not because the craft originated in that city but because the metal workers
living there became famous for their product.
85
fallen; the others advance to meet the infuriated beast. The
bodies of the fleeing animals, elongated as if to accentuate their
rapid movement, fit marvelously into the tapering shape. The
men have the typical narrow waist line. Both men and animals
are expressed with the greatest vigor. The process by which this
was done, known as damascening,7 is as follows: On the metal
base, usually bronze, the design is outlined with a sharp instru-
ment and the parts to be inlaid are cut out, leaving a depression
with a slight undercutting on the edges. Into this depression
pieces of different colored metal, cut to fit, are sunk and pressed
firmly into the undercut edges. The surface is then smoothed
and polished. Details are sometimes engraved.
Fig. 54. Dagger Blade. Bronze, inlaid with gold, electrum, and some black sub-
stance. 1600-1500 b.c. National Museum, Athens.
SUMMARY
These gifted Cretans, proud, aristocratic, pleasure-loving,
and of agile mind, in the two-thousand-year span of their exist-
ence produced an art that reveals their exuberance of body and
spirit. The splendor of their palaces, their furnishings and deco-
rations, the vigorous movement in the bull-fighting and hunt-
ing scenes, the charming naturalism of their pottery and jewelry,
and the magnificence of their metal work are witnesses that
the descriptions in Homer of the shield of Achilles and the
house of Alcinous were based, not on the poet’s imagination,
but on the actual appearance of the civilization by which he was
surrounded.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baikie, James, Sea Kings of Crete. London, Black, 1910.
Bossert, H. T., Alt Kreta. Berlin, Wasmuth, 192.1.
Breasted, J. H., Ancient Times. Boston, Ginn, 1916.
.. .7 Fr°m Damascus, not because the craft originated in that city but because the metal workers
living there became famous for their product.